Government asks World Bank for additional Agcom funding
Ministry of Agriculture Principal Secretary (PS) Sandram Mawelu has asked for more resources for the Agriculture Cormmercialisation’s (Agcom) successor project, citing the gains realised by the six year project.
He made the remarks in Lilongwe on Friday when a World Bank delegation toured Acades cooperative, one of the youthful groups that has benefitted from the project.
Said Maweru: “Coupled with the overwhelming demand from our smallholder farmers, it is only proper to request the bank for a successor project with more resources.”
In her remarks, World Bank country manager for Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe Mara Warwick, said Malawi needs to develop the agriculture sector in a more productive way.
She said: “On the scaling up issue as suggested by the PS, we will discuss with the government on what to do next but looking at the progress so far, we are more than willing to continue supporting successful programmes like these.”
Acades cooperative chairperson Madalitso Chipekwe said the organisation is working with about 3 000 farmers focusing on beans and soya beans for both grain and seed.
Agcom is a Malawi Govenment flagship project aimed at transforming smallholder agriculture from mostly subsistence to commercial being implemented with World Bank IDA credit financing estimated at $95 million (approximately K78 billion).
The project has so far approved 229 productive alliances and sub-projects with ready markets, out of which 167 sub-projects are already being implemented against the end-year target of 200 productive alliances by May 2023.
